Rational Thoughts in an Irrational World: UNHRC disbanded, replaced by UNHRC.

UNHRC disbanded, replaced by UNHRC.

From Yahoo News - UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. gave a green light Wednesday night to abolish the discredited Human Rights Commission on June 16, clearing the way for the new Human Rights Council to become the U.N.'s main rights watchdog.

Last week, the General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to replace the highly politicized and often criticized commission with a new human rights body. The assembly ignored U.S. objections that not enough was done to prevent abusive countries from becoming members.

The Economic and Social Council, which coordinates the U.N.'s work in those fields, approved a resolution abolishing the Human Rights Commission without a vote.

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The commission will be replaced by a new 47-member Human Rights Council, which will be elected on May 9 and hold its first meeting on June 19. Like the commission, the council will be based in Geneva.

The commission came to be discredited in recent years because some countries with terrible human rights records used their membership to protect one another from condemnation.

After voting against the new council, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told the General Assembly its "real test" will be "whether it takes effective action to address serious human rights abuse cases like Sudan, Cuba, Iran, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Burma."

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The General Assembly resolution setting it up calls for election by an absolute majority — 96 members — and does not ban any country from membership.

Well, the UNHRC is being replaced with a new UNHRC, except... what? The UN resolution doesn't contain any references to excluding abusive nations from the HRC, it doesn't ensure that a clear majority of nations are required to support nations to join the HRC, it doesn't puport to give a new direction to the HRC - that of actually highlighting and stopping abuses of human rights all around the globe. Indeed, the only thing that seems to have changed is that the word 'Commission' has been replaced with 'Council'. The abused people of the globe must be breathing more freely now that they know a Council is looking out for them, not just some old Commission.

Again, the UN highlights that it hasn't managed to do anything worth the time of day since the 50's, and is hostage to the dictatorships, kleptocracies and junta's who use the UN as a cloak to hide their activities, or at least make sure that in the UN (which many support as the only legitimate way to take international action) there is no chance of any real action taking place.